General gaming

General gaming

XSEED May Pave the Way For More Japanese Games on Steam With Ys

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 03:37 PM PDT

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

As great a service as Steam is, it's not atop the list of places to go when looking for Japanese computer games. That's not because it's only focused on the North American market -- you can find games like Football Manager that are more European-centric on there -- but with exceptions like Recettear, it's not exactly a bastion for games from the Japanese market, Japanese role-playing games in particular.

That's what makes it a surprise to hear XSEED Games, publisher of the last several Ys PSP games in the west, plans to bring a pair of JRPGs to Steam. First up is the very good Ys: The Oath in Felghana on March 19, which will be priced at just $14.99. Following that with an unspecified price and release date will be Ys Origin.

I Am Alive Review: A Bold Yet Frustrating Video Game Homage to The Road

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 03:19 PM PDT

See the child. Hear her beckon forth, surrounded by the carcasses of men harboring murderous intent. Men you ended. Their last breath whispering about the sweetness of a child, or the satisfaction of killing the interloper that you are. Save the child, who you thought was yourn, but she reveals herself to be Mei lost in the world of dust, not the daughter you left behind twelve months ago. The voice in your pocket sputters forth. The man named Henry asks, take her, take the lost child Mei, take her to the mall. Give her medicine left behind by those who never set foot in Haventown, those who drop foodstuffs and medicines from above and never look back. Not since The Event. The Event that scraped the loam off the earth and turned it into the dust that hugs and holds and kills all who wander within. The dust that chips and gnaws at your very stamina. The Event that dominates I Am Alive.

So you go, ever pressing on to find wife and child. Gone a year, but now you return, to climb and cobble and carry on. You cannot ignore Mei's bleat for aid, but other survivors of the Event not so much as settle but subsist their meager existences in the dust covered Haventown. A man yearns cigarettes to pass on. Another man in an amusement park needs medicine to heal the leg that's been crushed by another uncivilized man. Haventown also starves for supplies. Bottles of water, cans of fruit cocktail, a single inhaler, a handful of painkillers, these all turn into precious manna from heaven through scarcity. Give the emergency kit to the woman with the ankle sprain? What these bemoaning folk have to give, besides gratitude and perhaps a precious shotgun, is the Retry. Haventown harbors death by trial, not saves. It does not yield to the checkpoint that others call for. It takes away a Retry from your knapsack for every fall, stab, or shot you suffer. Deplete your store of Retries, and your journey resumes at the beginning of your current episode. A practice that leeches away minutes of your life. A practice that mocks you by depleting Retries and then flings you back to 45 minutes ago. What is worth more, the rat meat that can heal you, or the Retry that you get for giving rat meat to the gurgling man below? Every survivor, like the woman bound by handcuff to a bench, pleads for help while you mind debates.

OP-ED: Pros and Cons of Mass Effect 3's Ending

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 12:42 PM PDT

1UP's resident Mass Effect fans (Jeremy Parish and Thierry Nguyen) are of two minds about the game's ending. They hash it out below and on the latest Games, Dammit! podcast. Read, listen, and weigh in with your own opinions on the controversial finale to BioWare's space opera trilogy.

You're Not Alone: Gamers Share Their Quirky Playing Habits

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 11:41 AM PDT

gaming quirks

Everyone has their quirks, and when it comes to playing videogames things are no different, whether it be inconsequential things no one would ever notice or more drastic habits that radically alter your playing experience.

Writing about the way I tend to play open-ended games like Mass Effect recently prompted me to take a more critical look at the way I play games to see what else I do that might be considered... unusual. Wrong would not be the correct word to use, as I'm not sure that you can play a game the wrong way. You can certainly play them in a less than ideal way, as demonstrated by my propensity for playing Mass Effect or Heavy Rain in such a way that important decisions are rendered insignificant. Other eccentricities are less harmful, which is certainly good news for me as I seem to be in never-ending supply of them.

Posted by Shri Krishna

Total Pageviews

statcounter

View My Stats